High School School Tryouts

[SarahS]

In Texas, well, Plano to be more exact, they bring in outside judges. But, cheer and drill team are the only organizations they do this for. For all other sports, the coaches judge tryouts. Although, our coaches do sit in on tryouts and write their own notes while we perform.

This is a very good point. Why is it okay for the baseball or basketball coach to "judge" tryouts for baseball or basketball, but somehow cheer coaches are biased and so unable to judge their own kids? I don't buy it.

(If it isn't clear, we judge our own tryouts, lol.)

 

[cheermommaRN]

In our school district they bring in outside judges (NCA, UCA, ect) and then the kids are rostered from highest score down. If they are only taking 13 kids, the break is at 13. Our high school is pretty bad at cheer, only because they should hire an actual coach with actual experience instead of having Susie's mom do it. I wouldn't trust her to roster a team if her life depended on it. of course she decided to buck the system and picked her squad herself this year. I have a question what coach/mother who has 14 kids tryout for her squad, cuts one kid??? I know it's completely off topic but when my friend texted me that only 14 kids showed up to tryouts (mostly because the coach sets the participation amount so high and refuses to do fundraising) and the "coach" still cut one little girl...I wanted to go up there and punch her in the face and it wasn't even my kid.

 

[ztaprincess]

When I was in school we had UCA staff come in and judge our tryouts. We always had different stations where we rotated (jumps, dance, cheer, ect.) so we had multiple judges and the head coach would be at one of the stations.

My aunt use to coach the middle school cheerleaders and would used outside judges one year and after tryouts refused to use them again. She came in during the summer after the team was already chosen the previous year so she got to know the girls before tryouts the following year. Well when the outside judges gave her the scoresheets and she sat down to tally them she had girls who she knew deserved it not make the cut and others make it because, as the judges said,they were "prettier". Yeah that is right they seriously wrote on the scoresheet that they were pretty and had the "cheerleader look". It broke her heart to have to cut the girls she knew had the talent, but had to do it because she wasn't going to make it unfair. After that year she judged tryouts herself and I usually helped. What made it worse for her is the girls who got cut never returned to cheer even though they were some of the most talented ones.

 

[AllstarObsession]

When I was in school we had UCA staff come in and judge our tryouts. We always had different stations where we rotated (jumps, dance, cheer, ect.) so we had multiple judges and the head coach would be at one of the stations.

My aunt use to coach the middle school cheerleaders and would used outside judges one year and after tryouts refused to use them again. She came in during the summer after the team was already chosen the previous year so she got to know the girls before tryouts the following year. Well when the outside judges gave her the scoresheets and she sat down to tally them she had girls who she knew deserved it not make the cut and others make it because, as the judges said,they were "prettier". Yeah that is right they seriously wrote on the scoresheet that they were pretty and had the "cheerleader look". It broke her heart to have to cut the girls she knew had the talent, but had to do it because she wasn't going to make it unfair. After that year she judged tryouts herself and I usually helped. What made it worse for her is the girls who got cut never returned to cheer even though they were some of the most talented ones.

couldnt she, as the coach, override their decision?

 

[bellalexi]

In our school district they bring in outside judges (NCA, UCA, ect) and then the kids are rostered from highest score down. If they are only taking 13 kids, the break is at 13. Our high school is pretty bad at cheer, only because they should hire an actual coach with actual experience instead of having Susie's mom do it. I wouldn't trust her to roster a team if her life depended on it. of course she decided to buck the system and picked her squad herself this year. I have a question what coach/mother who has 14 kids tryout for her squad, cuts one kid??? I know it's completely off topic but when my friend texted me that only 14 kids showed up to tryouts (mostly because the coach sets the participation amount so high and refuses to do fundraising) and the "coach" still cut one little girl...I wanted to go up there and punch her in the face and it wasn't even my kid.

In our school district, the number of cheerleaders is set by the district so I don't think coaches have the authority to override that and add one more. I would be horrified though, if I knew I was only cutting one person.

 

[cheermommaRN]

In our school district, the number of cheerleaders is set by the district so I don't think coaches have the authority to override that and add one more. I would be horrified though, if I knew I was only cutting one person.

Your probably right but I have a hate-hate relationship with the coach there. She is driving the program into the ground. This year she decided she wants to go to NCA, but told the freshman squad that they were not eligible to go, that is where all of her talent is! I don't even think she is credentialed at all. We were at tumbling last season when they came in for practice and it was scary to say the least. Our squad is the laughing stock of Arlington school district because Arlington HS and Martin are such strong programs.
Oh she also made it impossible for the kids to cheer all star and high school this year. One of our girls wanted to do both and the coach refused to budge on anything. Even our gym coaches were willing to work with the schedule a little, but she basically put her foot down. So now my friend's daughter can only do high school, it's not that good, and she's been told she won't be competing even though she has a tuck.

 

[ztaprincess]

couldnt she, as the coach, override their decision?

She could have, but she felt that if she did that then it would have been wrong to do. She regretted it and felt horrible about it. She had stated at the meeting before tryouts that she would not be judging and that the judges would score them and she would make the team from that. I guess she never expected the judges (who were college cheerleaders) would score a girl lower on appearance because she wasn't the cutest girl.

 

[ErinS]

When I was forced to coach my sister's middle school program (non competitive...nobody gave two flips about the program)...I brought in outside judges...meaning 4 of my friends that I'd cheered with in hs, college or all star. Before each group came in I told them which girls to score high and which girls to score low (...sue me). I essentially didn't care about talent...because I can make anyone good if they're willing to try. (and they weren't competing anyway). The girls with bad attitudes that made it ended up quiting after fball season anyway, once they learned that they weren't gonna stand around and be cute.

I also ended up taking a lot of my sisters friends (sue me again)....

Most people didn't realize until the first practice that I was my sister's sister since I'd been away at college for 4 yrs and we don't look much alike...

Anyway. I feel like if the program isn't competitive and nobody gives two cents about it...then the coach should pick who they want to tolerate working with....if the team is competitive... you need to bring in unbiased judges...take whomever is the best and deal.

I've also judged several try outs and had coaches tell me who to score high and who to score low....I also have scored cuter girls (on non competitive programs ) higher than the ....less cute girls. (I know..I know...sue me)

...I'm that mean tell it like it is judge....and I basically tell the coaching staff to tell me what they're looking for.

 

[AScheer]

Your probably right but I have a hate-hate relationship with the coach there. She is driving the program into the ground. This year she decided she wants to go to NCA, but told the freshman squad that they were not eligible to go, that is where all of her talent is! I don't even think she is credentialed at all. We were at tumbling last season when they came in for practice and it was scary to say the least. Our squad is the laughing stock of Arlington school district because Arlington HS and Martin are such strong programs.
Oh she also made it impossible for the kids to cheer all star and high school this year. One of our girls wanted to do both and the coach refused to budge on anything. Even our gym coaches were willing to work with the schedule a little, but she basically put her foot down. So now my friend's daughter can only do high school, it's not that good, and she's been told she won't be competing even though she has a tuck.

Are you sure you don't live in Tennessee? I feel like I know the exact same coach! Sad to know there's more than one out there!

 

[stuntjumptumble]

The judges of my high school tryouts are the varsity coach, the jv coach, and the captains/graduating seniors

 

[blyndreamalum]

I've been on both sides of this. My high school brought in outside judges, but try- outs have been fixed based on how much families donate to the school. Going into my senior year our current varsity coach was leaving and her little sister's friends were sophomores going to be juniors trying out for varsity. That year tumbling suddenly became, "A clean cartwheel is the same amount of points as any other pass" because that group of girls had no tumbling. Needless to say all those girls ( even one with a broken foot) made varsity, and three going to be seniors ( including myself) lost our spots.
Now I judge try- outs for my All Star Coaches' company. I've been to some try outs where we've been instructed to high or low score certain girls, and some where the coach isn't allowed to be on the property. Programs in my area aren't typically highly competitive and some are very old school, so the material we've been asked to judge has ranged from your standard cheer, chant, jumps, dance, tumble to having girls show you all their splits and (on non flying teams) demonstrate scorpians, stretches etc.

 

[CD FOREVER AND EVA!]

I'm back to coaching high school as of Friday and I plan on doing my own judging along with the advisor and assistant/jv coach. I don't really want to cut anyone because there isn't alot trying out and also I'm trying to build the program. So we will see how it goes. Plus California cheer is so different than Massachusett cheer its gonna be crazy .....

 

[The Pom Prince]

Is it normal for school coaches to judge and select their teams without bringing in outside judges for tryouts??


Reallycoolcheermommy Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

it depends. My high school the only judges were our coaches. But in college we had a whole pannel

 

[Sierra]

At my school we have our highschool coaches, head tumbling coach, and a neighboring towns cheer coach come in to judge. This system seem to work well at our school. What our coaches look at is academics, attendance, attutude and ability( in that exact order).

 

[rockymountainthigh]

We have outside judges judge things like jumps, tumbling, and dancing and cheering. Our coaches have always been very open about the selection process. On the score sheet, the part that's weighted the most is a "performance review" which is basically points on how well you did in the previous season if you're a returning cheerleader, and if you're not they get opinions from your past coaches and/or teachers. They've also been open about the fact that they do judge on appearance, which sounds very controversial and biased, but I can definitely see why they would. I mean we are a performance sport and we're being looked at constantly by huge crowds. Anyways, so it's basically judged by outside judges with a large amount of input from the coaches.